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Saturday, May 22, 2010

A Rock and a Closet

Today's blog post is going off track a bit, but I've had a heavy heart this week and needed a place to put down my thoughts. Even at the risk of offending some of my readers.

So here goes.

I guess I was under a rock back in 2008 when Christian singer/songwriter Ray Boltz announced he was gay. Ray Boltz, if you're not familiar with him, has been on the Christian music scene for decades. The song I mainly associate with him is "Thank You." I've sung that song and hummed it for years. "Thank you for giving to the Lord. I am a life that was changed." I've offered thanks for a lot of people through prayer because of the lyrics, often singing them as a prayer too. "Watch the Lamb" is another of his songs I love.

So you can imagine my shock...and dismay...to learn he'd, as they say, come out of the closet.

Now, please understand something. I'm not here to judge Mr. Boltz. And I'm not bashing gays. I happen to love someone who is gay. He and I do not see eye to eye on the subject at all, but that doesn't prevent me from loving him. The thing that saddens me more than his homosexuality is that he is not a believer in Jesus Christ. He is lost, and it has nothing to do with being gay.

Mr. Boltz, however, is a believer. Since learning about his decision to divorce his wife and embrace homosexuality, I've read many statements he's made regarding it all. And yes, at this point, it is a decision on Mr. Boltz's part. Because of my loved one, I do understand homosexuality more than I used to and I do understand that to describe it as a "choice" is wrong. As my loved one once asked me: "Is my heterosexuality a choice?" No, it's not. He said his homosexuality wasn't either. So the choice is not whether to have same-sex attractions, but is rather what to do about them.

Mr. Boltz has made choices that go completely against everything the Bible teaches, not the least of which include divorce and sex outside of marriage, and yet he firmly states that he is still a Christian. In fact, he has gone so far as to say God made him gay and that he is finally living the life God planned for him all along.

But even if the very clear references against homosexuality are not compelling enough, then look to what is NOT in the Bible!

You can search from Genesis 1 through Revelation 22 and not find even one reference to a homosexual relationship blessed by God! Not one! If God "creates" people with same-sex attraction and doesn't have a problem with it, don't you think there would be mention of that in the Bible?! If marriage between people of the same gender was acceptable in God's eyes, don't you think there would be at least ONE marriage of such people in His Word? At least ONE blessing on such a union???

But there isn't.

I believe, with everything that I am, that same-sex attraction is the most prevalent of all of Satan's deceptions on mankind. Look all the way back to the Garden of Eden and you find Satan trying to destroy marriage and family. Sex is a beautiful gift from God to a man and his wife. So what better way to destroy such a beautiful gift, as well as the family unit God ordained, than by distorting it and turning it into something God never intended. Sex between two men or two women is unnatural. The parts simply don't fit. At least not in the way God created them to fit. Same-sex unions cannot "be fruitful and multiply" as God commanded.

It boils down to one clear truth: Homosexual unions are sinful. They go against God and His word. He never intended for a man to have sex with a man or a woman with a woman. Many people will struggle with same-sex attraction, but it's when they act upon it that it becomes sin. That is how sin operates. Thoughts lead to temptation and temptation leads to action, but it's only in the "action" that we sin. It's the same with adultery, lying, cheating, stealing, murder, and so forth. Romans 3:23 says "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." That's why Jesus had to leave heaven and die on a cross. For someone to claim Christ and yet continue living in sin is to crucify Jesus "all over again, and subject him to public disgrace." (Heb. 6:4-6)

I am a sinner saved by grace. I made choices that went against God's word. I lived my life for myself. I've shared a lot of that on this blog over the years. But God, in His wonderful mercy, pulled me out of that sin and set in my heart a desire to please Him. My deepest, heart-felt prayer for Mr. Boltz, my loved one, my friend Amy, and all the others who are being deceived into believing they are gay or lesbian is that the Truth will set them free and they will have life eternal.

Because no temporary earthly pleasure is worth giving up eternity with God!

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